MICHEALS’ MEMOIRS May 2020 Update
Dear Friends and Family, As we started our work with Wycliffe this month we continued to be impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. All of Wycliffe’s Internships that Barb has been working on for the summer have been cancelled and Volunteers she is sending overseas to teach in our Missionary Kid (MK) schools have been delayed in departing for their teaching assignments. Thus, we ask that you continue to pray for a lessening of the impact of the virus and an opening of country borders to allow our educators to get to their fields of assignment by the time these MK schools begin (which for some is mid-July).
Reaching The Goal As you know, the goal of Wycliffe is to see the Word of God translated into every language in the world that needs it. Amazingly, still there are 2,100+ language where no work has been started. There are many reasons for that, but the largest reason is no one ready and willing to go! Perhaps God will call some of you to become involved! One couple that got involved in Bible translation work in Papua New Guinea is Clif and Roxanne Olson. They went to translate the Bible for the Gumawana people in 1984. We arrived in PNG in 1985 and during the 15 years we served there we supported their efforts. What a delight to hear that they had a dedication of the New Testament in November 2019 which included selections of Genesis, Exodus, Ruth and Jonah. Work now continues in completing the Old Testament! Please pray for Gospel fruit in the lives of these people!
Surprisingly, for Chuck, his contacts with new people interested in serving with Wycliffe has grown! We praise the Lord for that. However, with all the changes that COVID-19 has brought to Wycliffe, Chuck has been asked to take on new work dealing with all the changes. This has made contacting new recruits in a timely manner a challenge. Chuck normally contacts people within a day or two when they reach out to Wycliffe. However, prepared budget requests have had to be reworked and new avenues of recruitment have also had to be explored and that has meant a delay in reaching out to new recruits. So, pray Chuck can find to time to handle all recruits coming his way (currently he is talking to over 75 people about service with Wycliffe) and do all the new work required.
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Clif and Roxanne Olson at the dedication in November 2019 (Photo courtesy of Amy Evers)